The Hidden Void
by Severian113
Summary: Seeking revenge for loved ones lost, Naruto and the remaining survivors of Konoha hunts a shadowy organization calling themselves the Hidden Void... (NarutoHinata)-Major Revision! First two chapters edited and added on to!-
1. Chapter I:Interrogation

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and anything associated with it. I just write about it. I don't make any money off it. All characters except for my original characters (Kinenbi, Hakai, etc, etc) are the property of the Masashi Kishimoto.   
  
A/N:The first scene might be a little too bloody, but it had to be done for the sake of the plot. It won't be done anymore, however: my point would have been made. (The Point? you'll have to find out...)  
  
Note on Update: Major Revisions! I advice you to read the first two chapters again if you read it before the third chapter went up. The chapters in some parts have been re-written, along with different characters- although Naru/Hina will still be on. Also, there will be NO self-insertion- so if you see a original character, don't worry. Also, the plot has been changed! Read the first two chapters if you read it before the update!   
  
-The Hidden Void: Under the Waterfall-  
  
Shoshinsha was never that smart; intelligence seemed to have escaped him entirely, at least to those who saw him trying desperately to figure out the difference between a horse and a donkey. But he was good at killing; quick, efficient, and brutal, he enjoyed what he did, and although he was no sadist, if the situation required for some pain inflicted, he never shirked to do so.   
  
And it appeared to him that day that karma did in fact exist; that what comes around goes around. He lay upon the ground, his tendons ripped, chakra bound and bleeding from several gashes... His legs lay flayed, blood oozing out from the expertly peeled skin.  
  
"I say it again... Where did you find it?"  
  
"No- argh...! I...-don't- know!...!" Shoshinsha cried, attempting to twist his body around, his instincts crying out for release from the pain. But he was pinned, too; several spikes were driven into his hands and legs.   
  
"Really... how about this?" The torturer, dressed in a dark hood, took out what appeared to be a kunai, dripping with a dark liquid foul-smelling. "I remember what you did to that farmer... and his wife... and his little girls. Surely you didn't hear their screams, and think, 'wow, maybe I should just stop now and let them go, even though I've broken their backs and raped all the women?' Maybe, if you had stopped for a second to consider that someone might do to you what you did to so many others..." The man said, laying the blade of the kunai upon Shoshinsha's leg. "You are finished, anyways. You'll never recover... and even if someone comes for you, they'll be more likely to finish you off anyways. Tell me of what I seek, and I might give you the mercy of death..."   
  
Shoshinsha screamed again as the man drew the blade slowly across the exposed muscles of his leg. "Alright- alright! Agh- oh gods...! It's in the waterfall, the void that which appears, oh god! I don't know what it is- they just made me memorize it...!"   
  
"Thank you, for the information... And as for the mercy-" The torturer stood up, and looked at Shoshinsha, looked into his pitiful eyes, begging for reprieve from pain. "It's a just punishment, really; a thing like you deserves only to be in the belly of some lucky jackals." As the man left, he heard the wailing coming from behind, Shoshinsha's last scream.   
  
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The man wiped the poison-stained kunai on a leaf, then pocketed it. He drew off the hood, revealing a shock of spiky blond hair- and around his neck, concealing his throat, hung the forehead protector proclaiming him to a shinobi of the leaf.   
  
Naruto walked over to a distant tree, and vomited as the memory of the man writhing under his blade came back to him. Throwing out half-digested ramen noodles, he told himself that he had to do it... and that man had been evil. But nothing helped. He was beginning to turn like Orochimaru and the rest, he thought. He was beginning to care nothing for the lives of others. And he had left that man there, to be eaten alive, a carcass left for the crows...   
  
"Are you okay?" A soft voice asked him, softly touching his back. "Take- take this." A pale hand offered him a small, chipped pewter cup filled with some green liquid. Naruto took it gratefully, and gulped it down. He handed it back to the woman, and said as he met her pale, almost corpse-like eyes, "Thanks, Hinata..."  
  
"It's okay..." Hinata said, and again Naruto felt a rush of gratitude for her, caring even for a monster like him... A demon within and a demon outside also.   
  
"Thanks, Hinata." Naruto said, and stood up straight once more. "So, we should go on now... no time to lose, you know."   
  
"What was he, do you know?"   
  
"I don't know. He had the sigils of the Hidden Void, that weird sign- but he was also a foreigner."  
  
"What... did you learn...?" Hinata asked cautiously.  
  
"Nothing... just a weird phrase, 'the void that which appears.' Supposed to be under the waterfall." Naruto picked up the canteen, which sounded of water. "And... you heard... him, didn't you?"  
  
Hinata winced as he spoke. She could hear the raw pain hidden within- the former heir to the Hyuuga Clan knew that the things Naruto had to do in order to save those he loved tore him apart; this was one of them. She had heard the screams, awful pain-filled sounds that rang through the air, but she decided not to tell him for now... "No, I didn't."  
  
He brightened... a little. "We'll stop by dusk, and Kinenbi should've went into town by now- I asked him for some ramen, and he better have got some."  
  
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They trudged along for some time, six hours at least. Their destination was the nearest waterfall, the Rainbow Falls; it lay somewhere to the south of their location, Naruto knew. For now, however, they were waiting for Kinenbi.  
  
They stopped on a hill, overlooking the river and more importantly the surrounding lands. It afforded them a fantastic view and also made sure that no one would sneak up on them, and also would bait any nearby void ninjas who would be searching for them in to a battle- a battle Naruto was confident he could win, with Hinata's help.   
  
Hinata watched the sunset. The sun seemed to be covered in blood, falling slowly through the air to shatter in pieces as it died on the hard, hard ground. The clouds nearby were dyed in brillant orange, and the air itself seemed to shimmer with light. And as she saw all this, she found herself glancing at Naruto... Who was currently trying to take a nap on the grass, a arm overthrown over his eyes for cover from the sunset light. She found herself smiling a little; although her childhood crush and hero-worship of Naruto had worn off as time went on, something else had taken place... a gentle longing for something more than friendship.  
  
He looked... handsome, she thought. His hair had fallen back, revealing his forehead, a pimple rising on the side; his arm covered his brillant blue eyes and his mouth hung open, drool slowly making it's way out- his curious whisker marks sunk in a little. Although, she thought, he wasn't the most graceful, the most handsome, he was still her dream... He had grown over the years, from a short, stocky boy to a, well, not tall, but still, of average height and a slender, lean build... His hair had grown, and now hung in unkempt, spiky locks over his ears and draped the back of his neck, while he parted it from the front of his face... His face had thinned out a little, and with his whisker marks he almost looked feral, like a fox or a cat. But his eyes remained the same, a mischievous shade of blue with a wide, laughing mouth that shouted a little too much.   
  
He was different, she knew, from the boy that she had secretly obsessed with back in Konoha. He was gentle, true, a prankster still... but he was also a killer, a assasin. She knew that he was what some would call a monster, from what he had done. But they had never known the trials that he had to go through, the aftermath of those deeds... of his increasing revulsion for himself, his self hatred, his longing for affection, all those which Hinata saw and felt as if they were her pain. And what he did was justice, in some weird way: an eye for a eye. The man that he... interrogated had been a monster, who had wrecked a farmer's home, raped and pillaged their hard-earned keeps just because the farmer had refused to tell him of where he kept his non-existent gold.   
  
If only, she thought, if only life had been normal... if only Konoha hadn't been ravaged by those that called themselves the Hidden Void, then maybe she might have told Naruto her true feelings, and maybe, since they were seventeen now, they might have married and had a dozen kids... She smiled as the fantasy took ahold of her. 'Then a yellow-painted house with a ramen cupboard...'  
  
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'Where the hell is Kinenbi,' Naruto wondered. Hinata appeared to be taking a nap, her blue-black hair fanned out on the grass, the sun almost gone from view as night started to creep back in. He had gotten up, after failing to fall asleep for a short time; he worried a little about Kinenbi, but decided that the overly active former Chuunin would be able to take care of himself.   
  
He found himself looking at Hinata. He knew that he should wake her up now, but he found himself studying her instead... Her face, pale and nearly porcelain-like in the absence of light, was framed by long blue-black hair; Naruto knew that Hinata was... pretty.   
  
. Not that he felt any deep feelings for her- of course he didn't. Of course not. She wasn't his type- no, no, she wasn't his type. She was his friend. That was all.   
  
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Kinenbi was a ninja of the Stone village, son of a Jounin who owed his life to one of Konoha's shinobis. When the Konohagakure was destroyed by the Void-nins, the Kage of the Stone village decreed that they couldn't afford a all-out declaration of war with a power of unknown strength- although the Void-nins were certainly strong enough to have taken out Konoha, home to some of the most famous ninjas of the land. However, when Kinenbi's father heard of this, he had ordered Kinenbi to aid the survivors of the battle in whatever ways he could- "upholding the family honor," he called it. And Kinenbi, strictly loyal, obeyed, and by the next day, had left for what was left of the Konohagakure village.   
  
He had found Naruto and his band of weary survivors north of the wreckage- he had been horrified on the way, for he had seen corpses stacked on sides of roads- and had offered his aid immediately. They hadn't trusted him, but then, who would trust a complete stranger right after their home was completely destroyed? However, after a while ( for Naruto, after Kinenbi whipped out a sack of ramen) they had begun to trust him, and now, he was a part of their little team... And he enjoyed it. In fact, should Konoha be rebuilt, he was thinking about settling there, instead of going back to the Stone village.   
  
Right now, however, he was coming back from a nearby village, after receiving a letter from one of Shikamaru's familiars- more specifically, hawks. He had received a bad scratch from one of them, and now he had finished reading the notes. One couldn't be too careful, and if the note fell into wrong hands... He would tell Naruto and Hinata about the contents of the note when he got there, and destroy the note now. He stuffed the paper into his mouth, and chewed it all up. It tasted horrible. He grabbed the ramen box again, and was about to leave when-  
  
"You there! Relinquish your valuables in the names of the Ameratesu!" A man in dark cried. Kinenbi looked up in interest, and saw that he was surrounded by five men, all similarly dressed.   
  
"You didn't even get her name right, you fools..." Kinenbi sighed, and readied himself into a fighting stance. "Talk about dumb bandits..." He dropped the ramen box by his feet. "I don't want to kill you people..."   
  
A/N: Kinenbi: wedding anniversary (he was conceived on the night of his parents' wedding anniversary...) Shoshinsha: Beginner  
  
2nd A/N:Destruction of Konoha will be explained slowly throughout the story. I don't like lumping it in one, dull history-book type paragraph.   
  
Author's Note: They are all seventeen. Kinenbi is a original character: (dodges shurikens). 


	2. Chapter II:Pits of Void

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Don't sue me.

Update: Major Revision! Many details were changed, along with some completely new parts. You might want to read the first two chapters again.   
  
A/N:Thanks to WormKaizer, Odor, MistressDragonFlame, and Gopu for reviewing on the last chapter.   
  
Hinata stirred the butane-heated pot a little more, and then checking to make sure the noodles were nice and soft, she ladled a good portion into Naruto's wooden bowl. Getting a spoon, she walked over to the blond-haired teen's prone form, taking care not to spill the hot contents.   
  
"Naruto..." She nudged him with one foot. "Uh, Naruto..."   
  
"You can't wake him up like that." Kinenbi said, nursing his shoulder. "Hinata, here, let me do it." He strode over to Naruto's gently snoring form, and kicked him. "Oy! Get up!"  
  
-Hidden Void: Part 2-  
  
"Man, what happened to the ramen?" Naruto said, scratching his head. "It's more like a stew."  
  
"Ah- sorry, I-"   
  
"Don't apologize, Hinata." said Kinenbi. He turned to Naruto. "I brave five hostile ninjas, destroy a house and murder several green trees just to get the ramen to you, and you dare complain?" His eyebrows shot up. "I should've kicked you harder."  
  
"I didn't feel a thing." Naruto shot back. "Besides, -sorry, Hinata, for thinking it was you- I should've known it was you. No wonder the ramen was all smashed up!"  
  
"You blame me? What about you, sitting here the whole night, taking lecherous looks at our dear Hinata?"   
  
Hinata blushed, looking away. Naruto glared at Kinenbi. He said, "What about you, then? Besides, in your words, fighting off several ninjas while carrying the food to me, what did you do?"  
  
"Well, well, I escorted-" stammered Kinenbi.  
  
"Right, escorted-" snorted Naruto.  
  
"I happened to come across several beautiful women-"   
  
"Who robbed you blind after seducing you-"  
  
"No they didn't you bastard- I helped them across the river-" said Kinebin, now angry.  
  
"You mean you helped them get their kimonos off-"  
  
"Why you lecherous snake-" cried Kinenbi.  
  
"While they robbed you blind!" Naruto yelled, finishing the stilted conversation. Seeing Kinenbi's glare, he said hastily, "Fine, I'm sorry for that. But did you get the bird to Tenten and Shikamaru? And are other cell's still active across the lands?"   
  
"Well-" Kinenbi slurped up the floating bits of ramen "Yeah. Tenten and lazy boy are in the city, whatchathaname-"  
  
"I believe it was Ano." said Hinata.  
  
"Ano? Why the hell would you call a city 'Ano?'" Naruto asked, puzzled.  
  
"Dunno." said Kinenbi, shrugging. "But there's supposed to have been reports of a strange cult of ninjas brewing there- Tenten and Shikamaru met up with that old man-"  
  
"Jiraiya?"  
  
"Yeah, the one who writes all those books my father used to read." Kinenbi stirred the bowl with his spoon. "Anyways, they met up with him and this weird guy with a puppet-"  
  
"Was he a Sand-nin?" Naruto asked.  
  
"Yeah, supposedly. I wish I could just bring the letter to you... It'll be simpler than explaining to you the whole thing."  
  
"But if you get caught, and if the letter falls into wrong hands..." Hinata said softly.  
  
"We're fucked." Naruto finished. "Just tell me right now, will ya?"  
  
"Fine." Kinenbi took a deep breath. "Four of us are dead. They got slaughtered while trying to get to the Cloud country- got ambushed by several dozen Void-nins. Kiba and his dog has been captured, or so Shikamaru says- he thinks Kiba might have commited suicide before he could be captured, though. And old faces have been seen among the ranks of the Void."  
  
"Old faces?" Hinata asked. Then she took in a breath. "You can't mean-"  
  
"Yeah." Kinenbi said darkly, his face turning into a scowl. "Several Leaf-nins have turned traitor. A disgrace to your village, or what's left of it."   
  
"...Is that all?" Naruto asked, quietly.  
  
"Some of the Sand-nins have pledged to aid us, too. That puppet guy- and a girl with a fan. Shikamaru didn't bother finding about their names."  
  
"Too troublesome?" Naruto asked wryly.  
  
"No doubt." Kinenbi stood up. "My village still won't extend their aid to you people- so I'm stuck upholding our honor for your village." He grinned. "Not that it hasn't been interesting..." He turned, and picked up all the bowls and the pot. I'll go wash the dishes and the pot- you two can digest what you heard and what you've ate." He jogged away, long legs vaulting him across the grass.  
  
"So many dead..." Hinata said, softly. Naruto thought he saw a tear glimmering in her eyes.   
  
"Four people... And Kiba was your teammate under Kurenai, right?" Naruto asked.   
  
"Yes. Poor, poor Kiba... and four more people dead..."   
  
Naruto stared at Hinata, who was crying silently for her lost friends. And he looked at himself, coldly calculating, and shuddered... Why couldn't he shed a tear at least for Sakura? I am a monster, he thought. I am a monster-  
  
Hinata threw herself over to the right, screaming for Naruto to do the same. The blond-haired teen followed instinctively, leaping back. Naruto looked around; he could see nothing, but he thought he felt a presence of a strong chakra somewhere... He took a glance at Hinata, and saw that she was looking around with her byakugan.   
  
"I don't see anything at all... I merely felt a... disturbance. Look at where we were sitting." Hinata said, calmly. Naruto saw that the ground before him had been incinerated... All without him ever noticing.  
  
"Must be a Void-nin... Kage Bushinn no Jutsu!" Multiple copies of Naruto appeared suddenly. "Only a ninja of the void would be able to attack like that..." The doppelgangers sped away, where the void-nin must have been. Naruto ran to the other side.   
  
Hinata scanned the landscape again, but she saw nothing- not even with her byakugan. Where had the attack come from? Nothing was around them; but- a blade of grass, bending suddenly -against- the wind. A leaf of a tree stirring suddenly. A scuff of hard-heeled sandals sounding across the morning light... How in the world did they sneak up to them in full daylight? Only some small traces of minor disturbances of nature around her told her that some people were near.   
  
Her hands flicked to her kunai, and she whipped it out, repelling a dozen shurikens thrown her away. They fell to the ground with a clatter. She gasped: she hadn't even seen them... only instinct and reflexes, honed from years of constant danger, had protected her. She hadn't even seen the shurikens that were thrown! And they must have been only testing her- she shuddered to think of what might have happened if they had attacked her with ninjutsu...   
  
A sudden cry came from her left, and her byakugan allowed her to see a man, dressed in a full gray jumpsuit, fall to the ground, a kunai stuck in his back. Even her byakugan hadn't seen him! Only her formal ninja training that gave her unprecedented awareness of her surroundings and also her heightened perception allowed her to even -tell- that there were others. And somehow, Naruto had taken one down...  
  
She had to keep the other void-nins occupied, and let Naruto deal with them one by one. She formed the handseals: this was a small, rather weak genjutsu she had learned while traveling with Naruto, and it had never served too well... however, this time the surroundings were perfect for it, and it would serve her purpose.   
  
"Spikegrass no Jutsu!" Suddenly, the grass grew, melting before one's eyes; then they shot up, becoming green blades six feet tall... she could hear cries of pain from the attackers, and immediately sped to a place where she thought she had heard something... Her byakugan let her see someone struggling with illusionary blades, one portruding from his stomach and the other from his shoulder. Strangely, she could only see his upper torso- it was as if he was floating from the ground with no legs. It wouldn't last long, however; their brain's could only supply so much delusions of pain, and already the man seemed to be getting ahold of himself...   
  
She stopped right in front of the void-ninja as he was just getting free. He saw her, his face half-covered by a mask; his eyes were shocking black, and he twitched... "Just a wench? I was hoping for the infamous demon-boy-"   
  
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Naruto let the Kyuubi's senses guide him, tendrils of red chakra pulling him towards the hidden void-nins one by one. They were somehow invisible; it was either that their stealth skills were something unprecedented, or it was merely a newly-devised jutsu... It was as if they had banished into a pit of void-  
  
That was it! Somehow, they had covered themselves in a small pit, a rip in time/existence. Light couldn't get in or get out, and thus wouldn't be seen, even by those with byakugans. But they could be heard... and most of all, a demon like the Kyuubi would be able to home in on these very absences of sight. And, he thought, he must be doing that already... Those thoughts that he just had wasn't his. He was sure of that; the Kyuubi must be leaking it's thoughts to his brain, it's own chakra, already mingling with Naruto's own, and offering solicitious bits of advice to his subconciousness... Although, and this was what troubled Naruto the most, what was the fox demon gaining by helping him?   
  
But this was no time to complain. Naruto followed the red tendrils, and he could tell that there was something distinctively wrong about a particular branch of a solitary tree- not only was it a perfect place- and therefore the most conspicuos place- for a trap, but the grass right below was moving, bending in the other direction of the wind... Smiling, Naruto formed the Rasengan.   
  
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Hinata stepped back as the man keeled over, bleeding from his ears, his eyes, his nose, and his mouth. He attempted to move his arm; all that came out was a twitch.   
  
The blue-haired girl looked around, byakugan still active. This man had been easy to overcome; overconfident, the man had succumbed to her Gentle Fist techniques, blood vessels in his brain and heart suddenly rupturing.   
  
She could hear a scream- and suddenly, below a lone tree in the field of grass blood spurted forth, bits of flesh flying around; a headless corpse tumbling out of nowhere...   
  
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Naruto grinned as his (or the Kyuubi's) theory proved to be correct. He had aimed the Rasengan at a general area around the chest; but the enemy ninja had been so short that the Rasengan had hit the man's head instead. Naruto had had no way of aiming by sight, of course; he merely relied on his own guts to guide the projectile. And as the headless corpse tumbled from it's hole of Void, he smiled.   
  
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Hinata glanced at the grass, now shrinking back to it's original state as the spikegrass jutsu began to wear off. Three of the void-nins were down and maybe even more, considering how Naruto's doppelgangers were running around taking down anything they bumped into, still they were outnumbered with no way to see their enemy... Detecting Chakra went so far before their enemies concealed it, and they could still kill without a sound- a knife slipped soundlessly in to the back, or a garrote choke that killed without cutting. What they needed was something that could kill over a wide distance, some sort of a explosion. And she had nothing of the sort; her attacks usually targeted only one person, and those were usually precision strikes involving damaging nerve cords or the Gentle Fist techniques. And although Naruto could produce something similar, how would he manage to do it without killing her?   
  
She rolled to her right, seeing from the corner of her eyes a flicker of hot light- the ground that she had been standing on moments before burned, blue flames crackling. Again, only her reflexes had saved her; but would they do so next time? She tried to be calm, but she was nervous- no, scared.   
  
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Naruto had seen Hinata's near escape from the fire jutsu attack. He couldn't use the Bakudan without harming Hinata, and possibly Kinenbi- the damage area was too spread out, and if he warned Hinata beforehand, the void-nins might possibly learn of it too. He cursed.   
  
His Kage Bushinn doppelgangers were running around still, he knew. The void-nins hadn't taken the bait: he knew that if they killed one of the shadow clones, he would sense the death and also the place of their demise- thus allowing him to home in on the location. But the doppelgangers ran around still without meeting a single thing.   
  
What they needed, he felt, was a ambush- If Kinenbi could march in here, fully knowing of everything that was going on here (which he should, Naruto thought: any idiot could see something was wrong when they saw a corpse with a kunai sticking from his back, and also a headless body), he might be able to turn the battle in their favor...  
  
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Hinata twisted, presenting her side to the void-nin as the kunai slipped harmlessly past her stomach. She grabbed the hand that held the kunai, and immediately burned the nerves with chakra- the void-nin, a woman, cried out in pain, dropping the kunai even as she lashed out with the other hand. The blow caught Hinata by the cheeks; the blue-haired girl fell, and the woman, one of her arms still burning from the nerve-damage, was about to fall on her- when Hinata, with blurred movements, whipped out a kunai, rolled to the side, and let the woman fall onto the blade.   
  
-On the Next Installment-:Kinenbi Comes to the Rescue  
  
A/N:Review! Review! Review!


	3. Chapter III:Kinenbi's Rescue

Disclaimer: See first chapter.   
  
A/N: a little short, but I wanted to finish the battle... Also, if you read the first two chapters before I posted the third, read them again, at least skim through them, because some characters were changed, with completely new parts added in.   
  
-The Hidden Void: Part 3: Kinenbi comes to the rescue-  
  
Hinata got up quickly, parried a thrown shuriken with another kunai, kicked up the dead woman's body and held it up for a meat shield. She could hear the shurikens thudding into the body; she stared into the corpse's blank eyes and almost threw up.   
  
She knew where the Void-nin who was throwing the shurikens was right now, but he/she would almost certainly move away after he/she finished throwing the lethal barrage of steel. So, Hinata threw the body in the general direction -fear, adrenaline, and a soldier pill popped into her mouth letting her do so- and rolled to the south, while forming the handseals for-  
  
"Fire style- Blaze of Glory!" She spewed from her mouth rushing fire- the grass caught on fire, and there was also a smell of roasting pork accompanied by screaming. She winced as she heard the screams- the fire jutsus were always so brutal- and she almost wished that she had used something else- but this was the only jutsu that she thought would work on such a wide radius.   
  
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Naruto was facing a different kind of a problem.  
  
The Void-nins must have decided that he was the bigger threat. His doppelgangers had suddenly been eliminated in one fell, coordinated move, and now he was certain that he had been surrounded. A shuriken or a kunai or two came flying his way, but he was sure these were only diversions; the Void-nins must be coordinating a massive jutsu, he thought.  
  
'Damn it, fox! Show me where the damn things are!' he yelled mentally. The Kyubi had stopped giving him aid suddenly, and now Naruto could not tell -at all- where the Void-nins were hidden. 'Damn it! Come on, you goddamned animal, show me where the-"  
  
There was a flash of white, and Naruto fell into darkness...  
  
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Hinata started, as she suddenly saw a brillant white flash. She had seen Naruto running about, his grey long-sleeved shirt torn in several places, and was about to go for aid when she had been momentarily blinded by a flash of white- and when she gained her vision back, she saw Naruto lying prone on the grass, smoke rising a little from his body.   
  
Her first instinct was to march in and carry him out- but her ninja caution warned her of such foolhardy actions. She knew that whoever had used the jutsu must have seen her after that idiotic scream, and knowing that she didn't stand a chance against something like that, she started running the other way, using what options of stealth that was left to her on the grassy banks.   
  
A kunai whizzed by. She dodged it easily, but then- the kunai had only been a ruse, to get her in the line of a deadlier projectile. A needle buried itself in her arm, then another in her thigh, and another in her shoulder. She fell, the needles burning; she felt the poison from the needles working their way through her veins, and she fell...   
  
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Kinenbi had been attacked.   
  
While washing bowls, he had been beset by Void-nins. However, unlike Naruto and Hinata he hadn't been attacked by invisible ninjas. The ninjas had been visible, and after crushing the two of them with his Earth Style techniques the other two had run away. Kinenbi knew that something must be wrong back where Naruto was- but then he got jinxed up in a trap.  
  
After spending several valuable minutes freeing himself, while on the alert for any attempts to finish him off while he was doing so, he had run to the campsite, and had seen nothing... Then he seen the headless corpse, the glint of fallen kunais and shurikens on the grass, the body with a kunai stuck in his back, a dead woman bleeding from a dozen wounds.  
  
After seeing all this, he concluded that something must be wrong, and needed not his bravado but his stealth- a ambush. But how the hell do you attack something you can't see?  
  
Easy, he thought. He saw Hinata falling, and he assumed Naruto had fallen also. They were probably unconcious, if not dead- so they wouldn't feel any pain. Just do his family's trademark Earth jutsu that somehow piled tons of rocks on their enemies a mile away. He smiled. And he -just- might have enough chakra, provided that he used one of the side-effect heavy Chakra pills that he had saved over all these years. They increased one's chakra threefold for a short time, although for days afterward they would suffer cramps, weak bladders and temporary hair loss along with noticeably weakened strength for a day or two. But then, this was worth it, he thought.   
  
He popped in a pill. He waited. Then he started performing the hand seals, hoping that no one had seen him.   
  
Someone kicked him in the back, hard- 'so much for not being seen' he thought- then he was punched in the face, a near-lethal chop to the neck from the side, a jab to the side of his ribs, then a boot to his buttocks- he was trapped, he knew, and getting beaten senseless from at least four people. Ignoring the mental cries of 'how the hell did they do that?!' he suddenly ducked what he felt was a punch again to his face -which was right- and lunged ahead, crouching, to what he thought was the knees. He was right. His shoulders crashed into someone's kneecaps, instantly shattering them. He heard a cry of pain froma above, did not wait for someone to kick him, lashed out with a kunai, rolled away, and broke into a run. He ran to the tree where a headless corpse lay near, and jumping onto it -knowing that someone could stab him at any point- desperately, with speed he didn't know he had, performed the seals.   
  
"Earth Style- Art of Crashing Stars!"   
  
At that point someone indeed brought the butt of their kunai onto the back of his head, knocking him out.   
  
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Naruto awoke, feeling... very bad. He was battered, bleeding from several places, and he also felt glazed, as if he had been burnt very slightly but all over his body. His left arm seemed to be broken, and when he tried to get up, he found that he couldn't- he was too weak. Or disabled, he thought with a touch of panic. All he remembered was a flash of intense white light- sensation of being burned- and darkness.  
  
"All you all right?"   
  
"K- Kinenbi?..." Naruto croaked. He found that his throat seemed to be burnt, too.  
  
"Yeah, that's me." The familiar voice said. Kinenbi stood over Naruto, staring down at him. "How do I look?"  
  
"Wha- what... did- happen?" Naruto choked out. He would have spluttered, if his neck and tongue didn't seem so burnt and dry.   
  
Most of Kinenbi's hair was gone, and his face was pale, with a rather parched look. Kinenbi laughed at Naruto's expression of horror. "I look good now, don't I?"  
  
"You... look... uglier than-... ..usual." Naruto said.   
  
"While you got a lovely tan." Kinenbi said, chuckling a little. "Don't worry, my beautiful hair will grow back... it's only temporary. And excuse me, I gotta go take a piss." He walked off, and as he did he shouted, "Hinata said to let you rest for a while."  
  
'Hinata must be alright then too...' thought Naruto. He smiled- or at least, tried to. 'Hinata's alright, I'm alive and so is Kinenbi... All's right with the world, so far.'  
  
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Kinenbi strode over to the heaped carcasses of their enemies, all mauled beyond recognition. The jutsu only targeted those perceived as enemies- which was it's greatest power. But, it drained the user horribly- contrary to what he had told Naruto, the pills' side effects were nothing compared to what the jutsu caused.   
  
He had shortened his lifespan by at least three years- maybe more.   
  
A/N: the battle was rather lame... sorry. The romance I haven't had the time to explore yet- but it will happen, as soon as they reach somewhere where it's not so action-filled. Kinenbi won't be a really major character, for those hating original characters... so don't worry. And the Hidden Void are not evil. At least, not evil for the sake of being evil. they just have their own agendas, that's all.   
  
Review! Review! 


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